Elsie Chin Yuen Seetoo

Elsie Chin Yuen Seetoo (born September 14, 1918) is a Chinese-American nurse, medical translator, and World War II veteran best known for her service as a first lieutenant in the United States Army Nurse Corps. She was the first Chinese-American to serve in the Corps. In 2020, she received the Congressional Gold Medal.

Early life and education Elsie Chin was born on September 14, 1918, in Stockton, California, the daughter of Chinese immigrants who operated an import-export grocery business. As a child, she attended local public schools, went to Chinese school at night, and was an active Camp Fire Girl. In 1931, amid the Great Depression, her family returned to Xinhui in Guangdong Province, China. On December 10, 1941, she received a certificate from the hospital as a Registered Nurse.

On June 17, 1944, Seetoo joined the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, becoming the first Chinese-American nurse to do so. She was commissioned as a First Lieutenant and served with the 14th Air Force, Air Service Command. In order to receive her commission, she was required to take an oath of allegiance and oath of renunciation because she had served with the Chinese Red Cross (despite having been born in the United States).

During the Vietnam War, while working as a technical publications writer and editor with the Naval Medical Center, she helped developed materials for medical corpsmen who were going to Southeast Asia, with an emphasis on information about tropical diseases, native plants and foods, x-ray technologies, and nuclear medicine. She has celebrated her centennial and resides in a life-care community near Washington, D.C. On December 9, 2020, in a ceremony hosted by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Seetoo was among the group of Chinese-American veterans honored with the Congressional Gold Medal for their service during World War II. During the ceremony, she expressed hope that their perseverance would "inspire our young people to serve this wonderful country." In 2022, Seetoo was inducted into the San Francisco State University APIA Wall of Fame. In 2022, Seetoo was recognized as "Veteran of the Day" by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The "Elsie Chin Yuen Seetoo Collection" is in the permanent archives of the UNCG University Libraries.